The Whites have 13 points from five games, Sevilla have 11. Then come Barcelona, Las Palmas on Villarreal and Atletico Madrid on eight.

Real went into the game with star strikers Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale restored to fitness, but looked surprisingly sluggish and flat in attack.

Villarreal finally came out of their defensive shell and were rewarded with the penalty, which Soriano calmly transformed in Antonin Panenka 1976 style.

Real dominated the second half with their habitual power football, banging in centres for Ronaldo, Bale, Alvaro Morata and Ramos.

Ramos' equalizer seemed to be the prelude for yet another Real comeback - as against Sporting Gijon a week ago - but they lost left-back Marcelo to injury and failed to break down the well-ordered Villarreal defence for a second time.

Also Wednesday, Celta Vigo scored their first win, 2-1 at home to Sporting Gijon on goals from Hugo Mallo and Iago Aspas.

"It was about time that we finally won a game," Celta's Aspas said.

"Once again, we were too anxious tonight...But I think we just about deserved this, after all the hard work we put into the game."

Barca were to host Atletico and Las Palmas were to visit Real Sociedad later in the day, while Granada were to face Athletic Bilbao.

Beirut (dpa) - Syrian government forces and their allies advanced deeper into the shrinking rebel-held enclave in eastern Aleppo on Wednesday, seizing the Old City, while demanding the armed opposition groups leave the area.